At the Balkan Leadership Conference, "Peace, Security and Development in the Western Balkans" being held in Prishtina, it was also discussed about increasing the credibility of journalism in the Balkans.

Media representatives in the region and professors of journalism cite current media challenges, highlighting competition, pressure from politics, the rapid development of the internet and fake news. Journalism professor, Lutfi Dervishi said that currently it is positive that there are many media. "Today we have a problem, the message and the messenger have become one, the time we have today is much more challenging because we are not alone in the market. If someone will ask me what is the state of the media in Albania, in one word I would say good, while in two words I would say not good. Why is it good, it is good in the sense that there are many media, nothing is left unsaid, in terms of quantity we do not have to complain, it is not good because we do not have much quality, it is good because all televisions and agencies are public, It's not good because it's not that they belong 100% to the public, it's more the next power", he said. Emilios Perdikaris of Greece's ANA news agency said the war in Ukraine raised fears of wider conflict and uncertainty about the future. "The war reminds us of something else, that peace, stability and security are necessary conditions for all Balkan countries. We have experienced this in the past and today we do know that these principles can be secured through the European perspective of the Western Balkans. Our role as journalists is very important. Our cooperation is for our benefit. We have many reasons to enhance our cooperation. I strongly believe that we can do that, aiming at mitigate our contradictions. We live in the same area, we have a common lifestyle, we face the same problems. Therefore, we must have a common goal: leave the past behind and work for a better future", he said. Speaking about the development of the internet and social networks, Branka Gabriela Vojvodic, general director of the Croatian news agency HINA, said that rapid digitalisation has brought challenges to journalism as a profession. "What is the role of the media today, then I will mention only two sentences about the role of agencies and that role should be double. We are also victims of this process, but we are also part of the problem, so the media is involved in all the evils that are happening, given that platforms today are dominated by digital advertising. The media are forced to develop other business models to maintain sustainability and be relevant. In this process, the imperative of speed is followed, it is more important than accuracy, editorial decisions are based more on the economy of attention to web analytics and not on reliability and verified content. This process of de-professionalization of journalism and the incompetence of the media to adequately and quickly respond to technological change, has opened the need for the formation of special organizations to verify information, and here I am talking about software programs and types of different 'Fake-checkers'", she said. Whereas, Erman Yuksel from the Anadolu Agency of Turkey, said that they are committed to increase the quality and fight disinformation. "The strong point is only the real news, we publish all this in 13 languages for all our subscribers, and our products have more than 3 thousand photos and thousands of other media sources that we do every day for our regular subscribers and for over 100 different countries around the world. We look forward to increasing the number of our subscribers and increasing the quality and content not only in the Balkans but also beyond the Balkans. We are committed to being accurate, despite the information we have, and to fighting fake news and misinterpretation, and I think we as an agency will certainly work harder", he said. Halit Hajdini from the MIA News Agency of North Macedonia, spoke about the conditions in which journalists work, but also stressed the need for a more advanced education system. "We have an extremely poor education system, and journalists who finish journalism have problems with the basics of journalism. We do not have professional journalists for medicine, we do not have for economics, we have big defects in schools and which covered journalism. The great burden given to journalism is heavier than it can bear. We have pro institutions and news agencies, the media in general, as we have society. Unfortunately, in my opinion, our society in the Balkans is not too lazy, but I do not see that we are at the level required in all areas, including journalism", he said. This conference is organized by the Universal Peace Federation, in partnership with the KosovaPress News Agency, the Washington Times Foundation, the International Media Association for Peace (IMAP), and the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace (IAYSP).